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2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1.
Why was Antony loved by the Romans even after the proscriptions?
"There was much
simplicity in Antony's character. He was slow to see his faults, but
when he did see them, he was extremely repentant and ready to ask pardon
of those he had injured. He was severe in his punishments, but prodigal
in his acts of reparation; and his generosity was much more extravagant
than his severity. His banter or abuse, for example, was sharp and
insulting, but the edge of it was dulled by his readiness to accept any
kind of repartee, and he was as willing to be sworn at as he was to
swear at others." writes Plutarch.
Cassius
Dio, writing more than two and a half centuries after Antony's death,
describes Antony as being the most ruthless of the three Triumvirs at
the time of the proscriptions.
So
does Velleius, but it was his policy to show Augustus, in whose circle
he moved, in the best light, and to malign Antony. He accused Antony, in
any case, chiefly of having shut forever Cicero's "divine lips"; but
the Philippics were not divine they were devilish.
But
Suetonius who was separated from the period by over a hundred year less
than this, and is the better authority, is emphatic, says that Octavian
was the only one of the three who showed no wish to bring the massacre
to an end. Antony, in fact, appears to have been the first to feel shame
for his atrocious behaviour; and at any rate there can be no doubt that
he alone retained his popularity with Rome's democracy, whereas
Octavian was detested. People jested at his expense; they accused him of
being so fond of fine furniture and antiques that he would condemn a
man in order to get the coveted collections; and they say that he used
to get drunk and cruelly add names to the lists of the proscribed.
Antony, on the contrary, when he was intoxicated, seems to have beamed
upon the world in ineffable goodwill; and Plutarch, in his comparison
between him and Demetrius, describes him under the influence of wine as
being like Hercules deprived of his club and his lion's skin, and as
wanting only to have a game with somebody.
Antony
is also credited with humane behaviour. Appian says that Antony showed
“unusual sympathy toward victims of the proscriptions and that he warned
many”. Appian has many other instances of Antony’s clemency, for
example that a certain Sergius was hidden in Antony’s own house.
Cicero
might charge rhetorically, that only the lawless derelicts were
following Antony, in actuality, more nobles were trusting Antony than
Octavian.
As
for Cicero, his own slave Philologus gave information of his
whereabouts to the officers. The officer, sword in hand, ran at him; and
Cicero with perfect dignity bent his head and extended his neck to
receive the blow, "Of all his misfortunes," wrote Livy, "death was the
only one that he bore like a man."
When
Cicero’s head and hand were brought to the Triumvirs in Rome, Antony
uttered an uncomfortable laugh, and, to put the best face upon a
shameful business, cried "Now there can be an end of our proscriptions!"
at the same time telling his men to place the head and the hand upon
the rostra, that all men might know the penalty of double-dealing and
lies. But when they brought Philologus forward to receive his reward,
Antony angrily ordered him to be handed over to Pomponia, Cicero's
sister-in-law, and this frenzied woman had him put to death with
tortures. Fulvia, however, was more savage than her husband, and it is
said that she took hold of Cicero's severed head and thrust one of her
hairpins through the tongue.
Cicero's
policies, so violent in denunciation and attack, had forced Antony to
extremes he had not intended. And Cicero's support of Octavian, even to
the point of illegality and war, had determined Antony's turning to the
legions with all the resultant dangers of renewed civil wars.
Sources:
Plutarch's Life of Antony
Livy, quoted by Seneca: Suasoriarum
Dion Cassius, Roman History
Suetonius: Augustus
Seneca, De Clementia
Appian, The Civil Wars
Arthur Weigall, The Life of Times of Marc Antony
Image: Reimagined bust of Marcus Antonius, inspired from his Flavian bust, coins and descriptions in ancient sources.
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